the_future_is_wildfandomcom-20200215-history
Spink
|image = Documentary= |-|Dinopark= |name = Spink |kingdom = Animalia |phylum = Chordata |class = Aves |order = Galliformes}} The '''spink' is a species of eusocial flightless subterranean galliforme bird endemic to the North American Desert of 5 million AD. Evolution The spink is descended from a species of quail, which are already heavily ground-dwelling in the Human era. The spink lost its ability to fly and became smaller and sleeker in order to become a burrowing animal, allowing it to survive in the harsh environment of the North American Desert. Its wings have adapted into shovel-like appendages with hardened feathers. Biology The spink's body plan is very different to that of a regular bird, as they are entirely quadrupedal, moving with a crawling, shuffling gait. The feathers of each wing have become horny scales better suited for digging, and the wings themselves are capable of independent movement in order to shovel earth. The spink crawls in much the same way as it digs, levering itself forward with its elbows, its weight supported by horny pads at the joints. The spink's beak, which can also be used for digging, is heavily flattened and is surrounded by a fringe of sensitive hairs which allow to nearly blind spink to better detect its immediate surroundings. Their feathers range in colour from dark brownish grey to white, and they are patterned with dark, sometimes black, stripes and patches along their sides and faces. Like most birds, they appear to be sexually dimorphic, with males having brighter white bodies and darker, more defined markings as well as an extra stripe on the throat. Behaviour Spinks, despite being drastically different from their ancestors, have similar breeding habits. Like other galliform birds, it has a lek breeding system located in a single area. The males sing and try to gather the attention of females. The lek eventually ends when the sun comes up and they get back to work, digging and finding food as usual. Ecology Spinks principally feed on the sugar-rich sap of desert turnips, which is also the favoured food item of the North American rattleback. Spink burrow systems are based around areas where this turnip is abundant, but their tunnels are frequently dug out or otherwise distured by rattlebacks searching for turnips, which they sometimes find by seeing spinks kicking sand out of their burrows. Spinks are preyed on by deathgleaners, giant bats, which find them by following rattlebacks and waiting for them to disturb the spinks and scare them out onto the surface, or by hunting on the spink's mating grounds at first light. Appearances In the documentary Spinks appear in "Cold Kansas Desert". A colony is disturbed by a North American rattleback digging for tubers, which attracts the attention of a deathgleaner. After newly-matured females are cast out of the burrow, some spinks perform a mating ceremony in the night, but are hunted by deathgleaners when dawn comes. Behind the scenes Criticism The spink is perhaps the most controversial animal of 5 million AD, and has been criticised for being unrealistic, principally due to the relatively small amount of time it's had to evolve, and the possibility of competition from pre-existing burrowing aimals. List of appearances *''The Future Is Wild'' **1x01. Welcome to the Future **1x05. Cold Kansas Desert *''The Future Is Wild: A Natural History of the Future'' *''The Future Is Wild: The Living Book'' Notes *The spink seems to have inspired an animal in the book Demain, Les Animaux du Futur (2015), Talpidornis sechani of the Eurafrican desert and steppe. Like the spink, Talpidornis is a eusocial burrowing bird with digging front limbs, which is hunted by giant bats, though in this case the bats are terrestrial. Gallery |-|Documentary= |-|Promotional= File:Spinks-600px.jpg File:Spink dig.png File:Spink cropped.png |-|Models= File:Spink statue.png File:Spink DE 2.jpg In other languages Navigation Category:Animals Category:Birds Category:Organisms of 5 million AD Category:Organisms of the North American Desert Category:5 million AD